Ben-Nadav Hafri
speaker
333 appearances
4 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard May 2025
Ben-Nadav Hafri’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
Now imagine I'm a major corporation in the real world. I'm infinitely more powerful than you. I'm Willy Wonka, and you are an Oompa Loompa. I tell you a secret, maybe one you don't even want to know, and then I say, by the way, I have eyes everywhere, and if you breathe a word of this secret to anyone, or even look as if you might breathe a word, I will destroy you. This is the crux of it.
At their best, trade secrets protect valuable intellectual property from being stolen. But at their worst, they're a powerful tool for a company that wants to turn an employee into an Oompa Loompa. It used to be the easiest way to turn a human being into an Oompa Loompa was a non-compete clause. But Janie says that's going away.
A lot of states are banning non-competes now, which is one of the reasons a company might come to Louis Del Giudice, IP expert, to help identify and protect their secrets. Could you make that bit in a secret room? Can you have a black vault in the office? Could there be a secret codebook?
But trade secrets can have a dangerous power.
Trade secrets are the only intellectual property protection that can last forever. And because of that permanence and the way we're geared to think about secrets already, they have a kind of mystical aura. In our secular, disenchanted world, they are the closest thing we have to magic. The most famous ones are the recipes. Coca-Cola's secret formula. KFC's 11 spices.
The exact way to create Wrigley's gum. But actually, a whole lot of things can be trade secrets. Software code, financial information. You may know a trade secret and not even totally realize it. But a good way to recognize one is the nooks and crannies test. This feels like a good transition to me to Bimbo Bakeries versus Botticella.
Can you tell me how you came across the case and how you teach it?
Bimbo Bakeries vs. Botticella. It seemed like every lawyer I talked to knew about the case. It wasn't a precedent so much as a legend. A piece of lore. A fairytale warning about the Oompa Loompa who took the everlasting gobstopper out of Willy Wonka's factory and tried to sell it to a competitor. Like any good fairy tale, it's a good teaching tool because the moral's clear.
Except, then I realized, the lessons of this case aren't clear at all. If somehow you missed the 2017 edition of the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers magazine, I would encourage you to look it up. Specifically an article titled, I Can Do That, about a Pennsylvania super lawyer named Elizabeth Ainsley. Liz Ainsley is fearless. She was head of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania's fraud team.
As Super Lawyers magazine puts it, quote, Ainsley has represented whistleblowers in several major cases, defended and prosecuted high-profile RICO cases against law firms and pharmaceutical companies, defended a major national bank in a lender liability trial, and successfully defended the New York Times in a federal defamation trial. End quote. Legend.
And yet, in that whole article, they don't mention a call she got sometime in January 2010 regarding a secret recipe for English muffins.
Chris Botticella, as I have mentioned, was in trouble. Bimbo Bakeries has just found out that one of seven employees who knew the secret recipe for their newly acquired and extremely valuable Thomas's English muffins was going to work for a competitor. Grupo Bimbo is one of the largest bakeries in the world. Grupo Bimbo bows to nobody.
So within days of Chris's termination, before he starts his new job at Hostess, attorneys for Bimbo file an injunction in a Pennsylvania court, which is technically where Thomas's is based, but mainly it's a way better place for them to argue the case than California. I would like to read to you from the factual allegations section of what they filed.
Items 1 through 10 cover the basics of the case. And then they get to the secrets. BBU and its predecessors have gone to great lengths to keep secret the recipe and process for making Thomas's English muffins for over 75 years. Thomas's English muffins are a unique product famous for their distinctive nooks and crannies characteristics.
As a result of his employment, Botticella learned trade secrets relating to the production of the Thomas's English muffins, including not only its recipe, but also the equipment necessary for production, necessary moisture level, and the way the product is baked, which all contribute to its distinctive characteristics.
With the knowledge described in paragraph 13, Botticella could produce an English muffin that might look a bit different, but that would nevertheless possess the distinctive taste, texture, and flavor character that distinguish the Thomas's English muffins. And that have been the foundation of the product's success. End quote. If you're Chris, this is bad.
Because you have to remember, the judge is coming to this cold. Louis Del Giudice, partner Troutman Pepper Locke, muffin trade secret enthusiast.
An immediately recognizable trade secret. Absolutely you can't let someone take the secret behind the greatest breakfast product of all time. The judge grants Bimbo's wish. Chris can't join Hostess till the case is heard. Meanwhile, Grupo Bimbo has hired a computer forensics expert who starts looking through Chris's laptop.
When confronted with this information, Chris told the court he was practicing for his new job. The court is like, are you serious?
Chris conceded that it was complicated. But there are mitigating factors here. First, the rush of it all, and the fact that he'd just met Liz, his lawyer. Then, too, he'd signed a document with Hostess saying that he wouldn't share any confidential bimbo information. He said he'd stuck around because he wanted to get his year-end bonus and finish two projects he was working on.
Showing 121–140 of 333 · page 7 of 17
← Previous
Next →